Red Hat Adds Kafka Streaming to OpenShift

George Leopold

Red Hat is adding data streaming capability to its OpenShift container platform with the addition of a distribution based on Apache Kafka.

AMQ Streams is described as a high-end data streaming tool built on Kafka stream processing. Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) said Monday (Nov. 12) it is integrating the streaming capability with its flagship OpenShift platform based on its enterprise version of the Kubernetes cluster orchestrator. The combination is designed to provide messaging services in the cloud to connect legacy and cloud-native applications.

“As more of the software world has converged on Kubernetes as the standard platform for building cloud-native applications, it is increasingly important to be able to run the communication infrastructure on the same platform,” Red Hat noted in a blog post. The result, the company added, is integration of event-driven microservices with Kafka’s ability to quickly exchange large data volumes for real-time event processing.

The combination also would allow OpenShift users to automate deployment, configuration, management and upgrading of a Kafka installation running on OpenShift. AMQ Streams is designed to help spot changes or node failures along with identifying the need for software upgrades that could be deployed automatically.

Red Hat said AMQ Streams is available now as part of its integration offerings.

The embrace of Apache Kafka by Red Hat and other enterprise IT vendors illustrates the shift from proprietary approaches to emerging open source frameworks as customers shifting to cloud-native infrastructure struggle to deal with a massive surge in data generation. Among those offering proprietary stream processing frameworks was IBM (NYSE: IBM), which is in the process of acquiring Red Hat.

Red Hat’s Kafka-based data streaming capabilities running on OpenShift, its version of Kubernetes, would help enable microservice-based applications while integrating them with legacy systems. All could then run on Red Hat’s Kubernetes application platform, the company said.